Nov 6, 2015 -- Keeping a tab on rising costs of construction, ensuring timely delivery of project while maintaining the quality as promised, and abiding by the environmental, socio political and legal implications, are some of the primary issues construction project managers have to deal with.

To overcome all these challenges, a construction manager needs to prepare a detailed project execution plan and then communicate it exactly as conceived to all the stakeholders in the construction project.

For years project managers have used their abilities and skills of resolving conflicts, detecting unstated assumptions and raising the most penetrating questions while depending on manual documentation and CAD drafts for reference.

However as the industry gradually embraced
virtual designs and constructions, a project manager was armed with complete information and could take informed decisions; thus develop concrete project execution plans.

The blazing question here is how BIM supports an efficient project execution? Planning how your project will be executed in an efficient manner is the best way to utilize your most precious time.

BIM visualizations will allow you to do this in the best possible manner, and this will pay off in several ways - how? Let me elaborate:

Using BIM for project execution planning, project managers get a clear idea of roles and responsibilities, and who is in charge of what discipline or activity. A federated model representing every individual disparate task also allows a manager to hold these individuals accountable for these tasks.

All your questions regarding who will do the work, how it will be executed and when it will be scheduled - are answered. As roles and responsibilities of every individual are defined and activities are scheduled accordingly, all repetitive tasks and rework reduces. As activities are coordinated in a streamlined fashion, the project timelines are also maintained.

Although it is possible to include the minutest level of details in a building information model, project manager in coordination with architects, engineers and contractors decides, what level of detail is extended to whom. The level of detail provided to a fabricator is different than that provided to the team assembling and erecting a structure.

As documentation in the form of BIM is handed over to individual professionals with the required level of details, the number of requests for information decrease, and this takes a lot of burden off from the project managers shoulders, so that he can concentrate more on planning and coordination activities. Also in case any request for information is fired, these are extremely targeted and pertinent. Besides they are furnished as per the set standards and this helps everyone understand and use this information efficiently.

Deadlines, schedules and dates can be added into the BIM model in order to monitor the work progress and hence make sure that all activities are completed within assigned timelines. Thus the project can be handed over to client as per the stipulated deadline. Now, as all the activities across the execution of a project are managed well, not only does rework reduce, but onsite space and work distribution also does not clash. As a result there is also less wastage of material and resources. All this translates into reduced project costs.

Your project manager can hence put to use the project information acquired via BIM not only for designing project execution plans but also for monitoring, controlling and finally ensuring timely completion of projects. The project is hence handed over to clients as per stipulated dates.

About Author:

Bhushan Avsatthi is an Associate Director at Hitech Outsourcing Services. Bhushan imbibes the prophecy of efficient and prudent use of energy in his day to day life and advices his team to do so as well. He is also involved in green initiatives like nonprofit tree plantation project and promotes using cycles for commuting small distances. Bhushan, handles a team of architects, Structural and MEP engineers, LEED consultants and Energy modeling experts.